Last Saturday we loaded up a bus full of 39 people and headed for Ngorongoro Crater. We had 34 youth, 4 adults, and one bus driver. It should also be noted that we loaded crammed ourselves into a 25 passenger bus. That makes an average of about 2/3 of a seat per person.
I was given the job of calling of the names of each of the youth to make sure everyone was accounted for. When I called the name of Omega Uroki, a young woman carrying a baby hopped on the bus, with the baby. Oh yes, so that makes the count 34 youth, 4 adults, one bus driver, and a baby. Seriously, who brings a baby on a youth trip?
As soon as the bus driver put the bus into gear the youth started singing. They didn’t stop singing until 4 hours later when we reached our destination. I guess it’s something like our youth who hop on the bus for the youth trip and pop in the ear buds connected to their ipods. Only these youth don’t have ipods, so they make their own music. It really was amazing to listen to them.
They did stop their music momentarily as our packed and heaving bus tried unsuccessfully to climb up the mountainside after crossing the river to get out of Uswaa. So all of the kids had to pile off of the bus, walk up the mountain, and then get back on the bus. When they got back on the music immediately resumed.
Between listening to the music and readjusting my butt on my 2/3 of a seat I kept noticing that the baby was being passed around the bus. I couldn’t help but think (and pester John with my questions): who brings a baby on a youth trip? Whose baby is it? Does Omega have a baby? Is she married? I’ve never seen her with a baby before?
About halfway to our campsite we had snacks, the bus did not stop, but they were able to hand out soda and fried banana’s to everyone. It was quite impressive to me that they could manage serving a meal in a crowded bumpy bus, but they did and it was delicious.
Due to the consumption of the sodas we had to stop a bit down the road for what Pastor Mmanga is calling a “short call.” I’m not sure what this is, but when I see a bunch of kids get off the bus and head for the ditch turning their backs to me I figured this out very quickly and decided I could wait for my “short call” until we reached our destination.
The bus ride home was about the same. The kids were dead tired, so it wasn’t until about 2 hours into the return journey that they started singing, but then their music saw us home. It was a great trip.
It should be noted that on the drive home, the baby, whose name is Loveness, was quite content to remain in the arms of her father for the entirety of the drive. But that story comes in part two.
I seem to remember that you did a fair amount of singing on bus rides.
ReplyDelete